My first work of fiction could not have been completed without these people.
Thank you to everyone at Allen & Unwin, and especially to my publisher, Anna McFarlane. Wow, Anna, I am so blessed to have connected with you. Thank you for believing in me and for giving me this chance and being the most amazing publisher an author could ever dream for. To Rachael Donovan, thanks for your patience and support – especially through the intense last stages of this book! To my editors, Clare James, Jeanmarie Morosin and Elise Jones, thank you for your terrifyingly thorough critiques and suggestions!
And I’m blessed to have so many other supportive people in my life. To Sarah Lassez, thank you, my dear friend and ally. I truly could not have written this book without your wisdom, insight and encouragement. Julia Ball, Kearie Peak and Melissa Torre, thank you my gorgeous friends for your support and enthusiasm throughout this whole process! To my beloved niece Julia Battese, thank you for reading the early pages of this book with all the big words, and for telling me you liked the enchanted cookies! And to Maddy and Claire Whittaker – Black and Blue! My Bandana Crew! Thanks for keeping me writing with a smile on my face! And to Bill Beattie, you planted the seed with me years ago, I hope you like the fruit! I will always treasure our connection. Thank you Jeff Sears, for your patience during the times I doubted myself writing this. And for listening to all my reading performances of this baby as it grew along the way, and getting me out of creative ruts with your ideas and input. To Diane Lake, thank you for being a true angel on this earth. And to Dannii Minogue, you wave a mean virtual pompom, hon! Thank you, for cheering me down the home stretch and across the finish line! Thank you, Jane Palfreyman – way back in the day you gave me my first writing break, which I will forever be grateful for. I am so happy to be back in the fold with you.